Dale Lolley and I had long wished to someday hire someone like Tom Reed.
Last summer, we outdid that wish.
It was last August, some will recall, that Tom came aboard. And the timing, as some might also recall, couldn't have been worse. The pandemic was in full swing, businesses were closing all around us and, from our own prism, there were still very few sports and close to zero access to the participants of those that were active.
Shrewd time to bring aboard a full-time enterprise features writer, huh?
Well, as we often say of our favorite teams' general managers, go get the player you want. Give up what's necessary, damn the consequences, and sort out the rest at a more settled time. So, we did. Tom had been an unfortunate part of a massive wave of layoffs and other cutbacks at his previous employer, and Dale and I had reeled him our way within ... wow, it couldn't even have taken a week.
This past week, my friends, is why Tom was worth it.
When the Steelers drafted Najee Harris, our goal was to be the Pittsburgh outlet of record on the story of this extraordinary young man. Within hours of Harris' selection, in the middle of the night, I'd heard from Tom about his plan, we stayed up to book the travel, and off he flew to California by the weekend. He arranged several of his interviews in advance, knowing time's precious -- can't be anything of record if you're last, right? -- and did a few by phone. But he knew he needed to see the family, speak with friends, absorb the scene to tell this tale to us as only he could.
And man, did he ever deliver.
Our readers devoured it to the tune of 13,104 page views, the most of any of Tom's excellent pieces for us and -- get this -- the average reader spent eight minutes, 31 seconds on that page upon arrival, per Google Analytics. That's roughly seven minutes more than the industry norm. Meaning, in a nutshell, they read to the end. As has been common with his entire catalog for us.
We're happy we got him when we did. We hope you are, too.
UP (KIND OF) CLOSE
All the welcome developments on the broader pandemic front have reached us, too.
After the Steelers broke the ice with the in-person press conference for Mike Tomlin and Kevin Colbert before the NFL Draft, they also allowed us and other reporters to watch Day 1 of the rookie minicamp yesterday. Masks weren't required for anyone fully vaccinated.
On the same day, the Pirates broke a different ice by allowing the first one-on-one interviews in the city. The reporter and the interviewee met near the dugout, standing a few feet apart, and did the usual question-and-answer thing. Also, as of last night, masks weren't required in the PNC Park press box for anyone fully vaccinated.
The NHL ... yeah.
GEARING UP FOR CUP
The Stanley Cup playoffs begin Sunday, of course, and, as I'd mentioned here last week, our goal is to cover them as intensely as we're allowed.
Well, in this case, because the Islanders still play in a venue that'd be outdated in Rome, it'll be a bit of a challenge, but Dave Molinari and I will be able to navigate Games 3, 4 and 6 in Uniondale, while Taylor Haase takes care of business here in Pittsburgh, as well as joining the coverage for all home games. That's the same arrangement we've had in the pre-pandemic past for the first round, so this, too, is progress.
WEEKLY APP TIPS
Sharing ways to make your app experience even better:
• Our boxscores are live, as promised!
Go to our Pirates schedule page, find the date of the game, open the box and follow along. I timed this thing myself last night in concurrence with the game against the Giants, and we were right there pitch for pitch. It's a big addition for us, in that readers have been asking forever for reasons to not leave the app. So here's yet another.
To find all our schedules, standings and stats, just tap the team page of your choice. We're also fully live with Penguins.
Our previous two tips:
• On that horizontal blue stripe across the middle of the home page, there's now a tab for my columns. So the four options now are HOME, TODAY, COLUMNS and PODCASTS. The Today one, for anyone who doesn't know, is a daily schedule of our teams' events, on top of What's Brewing and our staff locator map.
• Activate your alerts! With our old site, we had 19,000-plus people receiving alerts. With this one, it's still fewer than 1,000. And that's because we're waiting on you to make that happen. To do so, enter your profile/account area by tapping the little circle at the top left of your app. Thumb down a bit to find Notifications, then hit Select. That's where you'll find all your choices.
BACK TO BUSINESS
• Our page views for the past week were 523,471, down 12.9% from the previous week. Our most-read original piece, again, was Tom's feature on Harris, at 13,104. Broken down by team, articles on the Penguins brought 30.6% of our traffic, the Steelers 16.4%, the Pirates 13.7%.
• Our new subscribers for the past week were at 38, down 16 from the previous week.
• Our new app downloads for the past week were 108 for Apple, down 57 from the previous week, and 18 for Android, up 7 from the previous week.
• Our podcast downloads for the past week were 121,197, down 10% from the previous week.
• We're at 40,939 (+172) followers on Twitter, we're at 37,122 (+14) followers on Facebook, we're at 14,512 (+13) followers on Instagram, and we're at 2,237 (+464) followers on YouTube. These figures are just for our official company account on each platform, not for us as individuals.
• We make mistakes. If you see one, email: Typos@DKPittsburghSports.com
• Anything you need, including lost/forgotten passwords, email: Help@DKPittsburghSports.com
• Random geographic fun, to be read in an Alex Trebek voice: This city had 143 unique users of our app in the past week, leading all overseas cities. (Cue Jeopardy music.)